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The saints

Sts. Simon and Jude

Two apostles we know little about, and one of them is the saint people call on when everything has gone wrong.

Feast: 28 October · 1st century · The early Church · Galilee, and the East

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Painting by Georges de La Tour of St. Jude, a bald, bearded old man holding a halberd.

Didier Descouens, 2021. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / Sts. Simon and Jude

Somewhere in the East

Simon is called the Zealot in the lists of the apostles.1

Jude, also called Thaddeus, asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would reveal Himself to them and not to the world.2

That is nearly all the Gospels tell us, and still millions pray to Jude every day.

Patron of desperate situations (Jude)3

01Sts. Simon and Jude

Almost unknown

The New Testament letter of Jude is traditionally linked with him.3

Tradition says the two preached together in the East, perhaps in Persia, and were martyred there.3

02Sts. Simon and Jude

The patron of lost causes

Devotion to Jude grew strong in the last two centuries, especially for situations that seem impossible.3

Live it this week

Pray for one impossible thing

Jude is the friend people turn to when there’s nothing left. Pick one situation you’ve given up on. Pray for it every day this week, and do one small concrete thing toward it too.

Notes

How we know · 3 sources for this page
  1. Luke 6:15, World English Bible. read the chapter
  2. John 14:22, World English Bible. read the chapter
  3. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saints Simon and Jude”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.